


Before the War

by kerwynlar



Category: Original Work
Genre: A little bit of character stuff too, Letter, Letter to unborn children, M/M, Magic, Magical Pregnancy, Magical society, Mpreg, Post-War, Shameless exposition, Worldbuilding, implied PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27869329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kerwynlar/pseuds/kerwynlar
Summary: The Unnamed First Person Narrator from The Mage's Husband (https://archiveofourown.org/works/27769348) writes a letter to his children, both born and yet-to-be-born about the world before the war and the one they will be born into.
Relationships: Adept Mage/His Pregnant Husband
Comments: 3
Kudos: 2





	Before the War

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Mage's Husband](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27769348) by [kerwynlar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kerwynlar/pseuds/kerwynlar). 



> This is a companion work to The Mage's Husband. I believe they can stand alone from each other and I don't think the order you read them in matters.  
> I gave this a Teen and Up rating because of mpreg and mentions of warfare. I think that's maybe overly conservative though and am open to feedback on that and everything!  
> Thank you for reading.

A Letter To My Children

Will you ever know what it was like before the war? Will you one day make that world for yourselves? Will you know how? Or will you treat magic like a precious commodity? Will you be stingy with it as mages must be now, saving it only for the most vital functions, doling it out as the empress, or her successor, sees fit? 

Can you believe me when I tell you that magic was once part of our economy? That nearly every town in the empire had a magery and the cities had several. That anyone could save their coin and go to the local magery to have broken things fixed, far things fetched, and ugly things made more beautiful. That people flocked in from outside the empire to trade their wares or spend their gold with our mages. That if a citizen did not have the coin and it was a matter of importance, they could go to their governor. For the governor of each province had a Provincial Mage or the governor himself was the mage, and magic could be had for free if it was deemed in the province’s best interest. If you had been born before the war, that could have been your fate: opening up a little magery in a nice town, having a quiet comfortable life. Or rising to prominence in provincial government. Or, like your father, serving the empress. (Though before the war, it was the emperor. He was killed in the fighting like so many others, and his daughter was crowned.) 

Your father. None of us will ever know what he was like before the war, as I met him while we were fighting it. For all I know before the war he may have changed his face as carelessly as other mages did back then. A different shape to the eyebrows one day, a slightly different nose the next, a different hair color the day after that. Wealthy humans did it too, you know. Paid to have the local mage make them look as they desired, though for humans it would wear off after a time and they would have to pay to keep the glamor. But no, now that I have written that, I know that Nevin was never that flighty. He picked his face and kept it always. 

I know he had lovers before the war - (Does that bother you to read? That your parents once loved others - for I had lovers too. That we were desiring and desirable people.) - and some of his lovers were mages. 

Are you old enough, when you’re reading this, to understand why your father and I have discouraged you and perhaps even forbid you from taking up with other mages? Two of you will soon be one year old, and two have just begun to make my belly swell outward, still too small for me to feel your movements. And there will be more after these I’m sure. Each of you is a mage because every child of a mage is a mage, regardless of the other parent. And so, to get more mages, to try to get back what we lost in the war, mages must take human spouses and keep them pregnant. Will I and my fellows have done enough so that by the time you’re grown you may wed whomever you love? I hope so. At least you will not be restricted by sex, but no mage ever is. For a mage to get a child on a human, man or woman alike, fertility magic is always needed, so it makes no difference the sex of your partner. 

Did you know that before the war some mageries specialized in fertility magic and pairings of human males could pay for one of them to get pregnant? Or human male and female pairings where the man wanted to be pregnant and the woman didn’t or couldn’t. Now if a man wishes to carry his children he must take up with a mage, for there is not enough magic to spare on purely human pairings. I see hungry looks sometimes when I go out, my belly rounded in a way that can only mean one thing. I have even caught a few looks from one or two of the servants. My heart goes out to them, but they want something that it is far beyond my power to give. 

By the time you’re grown and have chosen your path will there be enough magic that human pairings can get fertility magic again? Perhaps one of you will specialize in fertility magic and make so many so very happy. Or will you follow in your father’s footsteps and specialize in battle magic? Has he told you that he was a soldier even before the war? Well, more of a general than a soldier. Before the war he commanded the mages who kept our borders safe. But when the enemy decided to attack, when they decided that our magic made us too strong, too prosperous, not even magic borders could keep them out. 

I fear that you will all be taught battle magic from your earliest days. For when the enemy came all the mages in the land had to know it, had to join the fight, not just those who took to it naturally like your father. But the war took its toll even on Nevin, who was better prepared to fight than most mages. 

I don’t believe the battle magic itself bothered him. I think it was the amount of magic, day after day, night after night, casting and casting, and using and using until he had spent every last scrap he had and collapsed. These days I can always tell if he’s had to use a lot of magic at court. The empress would never drain him dry in peacetime, but there are days when he uses enough to have his limits in sight. He is quiet when he comes home those days, his hands tremble a little while we eat dinner, and when we go to bed he curls up tightly against me, sometimes holding on so hard it hurts. I believe that this is why he chose me. When the empress told him to marry and start having children, he wanted someone who had seen what he went through in the war, and would understand the price he paid. 

I know Nevin does not want you to have to fight, but I suspect he wants you to be prepared. Is that what he whispers to you when you’re in my belly? His voice is so quiet I can’t make out his words, but I feel the soft brush of his lips against my skin, and I run my hand through his hair. Whatever he is telling you I know it will make you stronger, more ready for the world you have to face.  
Oh my children, my sweet babies, can we make the world what it was before the war? Can you? Or will you make it something else?  
\-- Papa

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to @Drinkwater for asking questions on The Mage's Husband which inspired this. I hope you like the answers! 
> 
> I am always grateful for comments!


End file.
